8/24/2010

Did you enjoy that Steve Starks remix I posted yesterday? I hope so, because today's post is focused entirely on Munchi, one of the most interesting producers out there at the moment. He is a 17 year old Dominican prodigy living in Rotterdam, Holland, and has received a lot of blog attention in 2010, mainly due to his extremely prolific output and his almost feverish desire to innovate.

Munchi's sound, so to speak, skirts the line between moombahton, cumbia, kuduro, reggaeton, merengue, baltimore club, baile funk and salsa. He has tried his hand at a lot of different types of regional dance music, with a great level of success, in my opinion. He has an amazing ear for dope shit, and I especially dig his drive. Munchi, if you're not aware, releases almost every single one of his tracks for free on his blog (link below), in monthly promo mixtapes. Basically, every month, this kid takes on a new genre and puts his spin on it, and releases it to the public for feedback and listening pleasure.

Munchi has been called "The Next Diplo" by Generation Bass, and while it's too early to tell, I can see why they'd throw that out there. Munchi, much like Mr. Mad Decent, is completely unafraid to take the most obscure or obvious sample, and flip it into something amazing. They've both got a manic drive to make people go buck wild, but it may be a while before Munchi attains the same level of recognition. However, if he keeps up his output, all the while turning Planet Rock into a creeping dutch house banger, The Fugees songs into rousing cumbia anthems and Ed Banger electro into Kuduro/Reggaeton hybrids, he might have a chance. Can you say facemelting?

What makes a lot of regional dance music like kuduro or guarachero attractive to me is the fact that these producers make this amazing music with limited resources, usually an old computer running a bootleg early copy of Fruity Loops. While they might not have the luster or big sound of proper recording studios or fancy equipment, the rawness and power of these tracks makes them almost better/funner to dance to, in my opinion. The innate sense of rhythm that these producers have without much outside influence and the almost hedonistic vibe of the tracks makes them appeal to a much wider audience. It is global dance music, if that makes any sense.

What does this have to do with Munchi? Couple that innate sense of awesome rhythm with being surrounded by an exploding dutch house scene, and you have a producer with his finger directly on the pulse of what makes people dance and go apeshit. Truly a force to be reckoned with.

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The songs featured on this blog are for promotional use only. Our goal is to promote the artists we feature, to expose great talent to a wider audience, and not to steal money from their pockets. If you would like a song removed, just get at us in the comments and we'll be more than happy to oblige. If you like the music we feature, then support the artists next time they roll through your city, either by going to a show, or by buying merchandise!